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The two lakes I fish most often have a lot of great ledges and walls close to bank and I've spent a lot of time over the last several years working those drops and shelves. I really enjoy working 30 foot off the bank, sitting over 40' of water. As much as I do it, I'm still learning every time out. This weekend I stumbled into a repeatable pattern I'd never noticed before. The only drops with reliable bites from good fish were those with small grass flats at the top. Had to tick the grass without getting fouled and then drop almost straight down to 15-20 foot rock or wood outcroppings. There were sub 2# bass in the grass, but the bigger ones were all deeper. T-rig and jig did most of the damage, but I was able to cast a big spoon parallel to the walls and trick a few.

I got about 3 hours of sleep total last night. Just could not stay asleep. So I decided to stay as close to home as possible. So…another 45 second drive to the pond lol. Haven't had much success here lately and as far a quantity is concerned, only 4 in 4 hours. But, I did catch my new topwater PB this morning. Not huge (just under 4 lbs.) but yeah, it’s my biggest topwater bass. Decided to start out on a PopMax and it was a good choice. About 10-12 casts in, as soon as I made the first twitch, it was gone. No big blow-up. Just gone like sucked down the drain. She put up a great fight. Nothing on a jig this time. One on a Zoom Z Craw worm in California 420 on a Texas rig and two on a WR black Senko. All fought hard. The topwater bass started pulling drag!

A couple fish from my old stomping grounds. I found them on a flat in 12’ and on the ledge dropping into the old river channel.

That bass is HUGE, @Choporoz! I fished a bog this morning, but the weeds were insane. Weeds above water, on the water, and strata of weeds below the water. I picked weeds off two-thirds of my cast. I hooked what I think were two big ones and my mechanics were good, but I just couldn't keep them out of the weeds, which work like a Monopoly "Get out of Jail Free" card or a can opener or a safe cracker. I caught 17 bass on a shaded shoreline, in current, and in pads. I start with the first bass, then the best bass, and finally a pic of the bog.

Very pretty out there! Definitely looks a lot different than my neck of the woods lol. @ol'crickety Love that, awesome getting the family involved! @Bluebasser86 Went fishing at the river this morning, was doing some wading and caught some bass. Hooked a turtle as well, luckily was able to get him off the hook. A couple kiddos ran up and wanted to pet the bass too, was pretty neat lol. Second picture is of a Guadalupe bass I believe.

Took the family out in the boat Saturday on a nice cool day. Supposed to be cloudy and no chance of rain, but it rained a good portion of the time unfortunately. They toughed it out a good portion of the time, the kids were pretty motivated by the promise of me paying them $1 for every fish they caught. It got a little heavy at one point and I took them back to the truck for a little while. Mrs. Blue had the hot hand on the toothy fish and kitties. Sunday, I took my buddy Deric out to my river spot. He use to fish the rivers a lot but hasn't been in years since nobody will go with him anymore. It was kind of a slow day, but he made his only bite of the day count.

Had a couple hours free from mowing this afternoon, got a nice gar in the tiny kayak. Took it to shore to figure out how to unhook it and luckily it unhooked itself after dragging my rod/reel back into the water the first time I beached it

Rivers blown out had to do some lake fishing

Not a review. I'm just sharing my newest find and purchase in really cheap aluminum frame reels as well as some on the water initial impressions. I usually wait year or two to do a review. The reels are the Sesir Megacuda and Leydun G6. Both reels are the same with different branding and colors. You see this with OEM reels a lot and especially on Aliexpress. Eventually these Aliexpress reels get picked up by a major brand and end up for sale on the US for a significant price increase such as the Dobyns Maverick (Histar Black Mamba) but these are sort of a hidden gem for now. They are aluminum frame 6 gear 36mm deep spool reels with a 110 power handle and a cone shaped level wind. They cast really well with the heavier baits I have been throwing like chatterbaits, 6 inch magdrafts/cullshad and 25 to 30 foot deep cranks. Leave the spool tension set to just eliminate side to side play as they came out of the box and set the dial to max and I was casting into the wind no problem and making spool emptying casts with the wind at lower magnetic dial settings. I have 15 pound Big Game on one and 12 on the other with no conditioner and the line is able to flow freely out of the reel thanks to that cone level wind. The ergonomics are really good for a 36mm spool reel with a cone level wind placed far from the spool. This usually makes the reel rather long but these are pretty compact and small palming for a 36mm spool reel and palm smaller than a TD-Z or TD Zillion. It reminds me of an Alphas TW or Tatula 80 but taller with 36mm spool. The smoothness is pretty good too. There is some gear mesh when winding under load if you hold the reel off the rod and drive your thumb onto the spool to simulate winding under heavy load but once on a rod cranking a super deep crankbait I just don't really feel it palming the reel or through the knobs. I really only pickup a slight buzz when winding in a cullshad but it's very uniform feeling and in the background. It's not unpleasant at all unlike a black max or every other plastic frame reel I have and I have many that all feel horrific and make horrible sounds when wind under load. These cheap aluminum 6 gear reels have so far been quite nice. Time will tell how they hold up but they were actually greased out of the box unlike most of my Aliexpress reels so that's a good start.

After watching many You Tube videos on kayak keel guards I decided on JB Weld to protect my Kayak. I decided on JB Weld because it was locally available, and easy to install. I tried a small patch on the bow where most of the damage occurs. After a couple months the JB Weld held up better than I expected. Today I added more on the places on my kayak that get the most scrapes and scratches. I purchased the JB Weld at my local Home Depot, and it wasn't cheap but should last a long time. I used 13 packs with the total cost around $70 at current exchange rates. I wasn't able to find bigger tubes, so I had to buy the small packages. Larger amounts would have brought the cost down, but like many things, finding the larger amounts was more difficult in Mexico than it would have been in the states. I try not to abuse my kayak by dragging it over places that will damage the bottom, but I don't baby the boat. I bought my kayak to use and after 5 years it definitely looks used.

Pooped

Stopped a blue trophy from going to a Johnston bro - I'm good with it

Yay! The old dude wins 😂🤣😂

Wow, that was awesome, way to go Ed!!!! Dreams do come true!

Advertised from 1987-1990. It was a low end reel, usually selling for around $29.99 and often sold as a combo with a composite rod. It had a 4.7:1 gear ratio and featured Autocast, which was their one-hand casting thumbbar feature. There was also an MA10G size.

I do. Its because every state has different rules on the number of lines that can be used. Some are 1, some are 2, some are 3, and some are no limit. Its the same with the alabama rig. Here we cannot use them with with more than one hook/treble hook and the rest have to be decoys. Professional circuits often go from one state to the next to compete and the rules change. I can't even imagine 100 anglers trying to follow each state's specific rules when it comes to this. It would be a train wreck and then they would blame the directors for not reminding them and the directors would blame the anglers for not following them. As it stands right now, there is no limit on graphs or transducers in ANY state. Its completely unlimited. That's why I think there should be boundaries established.

@1984isNOW I respect your opinion. I think you have some misconceptions about how the technology works that are not that important but your opinion that you should have to fish to find fish in a tournament is logical. I would just point out that pros have been using Fish Finders to find fish for decades and before that they were using flashers. There were stories of pros spending their entire practice time graphing without making a cast long before FFS existed. In real life you don’t care if I choose to use the technology and I don’t care if you choose not to. That’s cool. The tournament organizations have to choose their rules. They will not be able to please everyone. I’ll still enjoy watching them if they put some limits on the technology but I would prefer to watch them fish the way I do.

You did good. At least those fish still have a chance. Guessing either the puddle dries and they die, or a heron comes along and eats them otherwise. If the river refloods and fills the pool, it’s no different than what you did, just in reverse. Take the river to the fish, or the fish to the river. I’d have done the same - and have before.

Slightly better one from my favorite rat hole today

No, end-of-cast backlash is due to not using your thumb to stop the spool. You should be using thumb on the fall to adjust the final elevation of your cast accuracy, and to stop the spool when the lure hits the water. Brakes are for preventing start-up backlash (centrifugal or non-linear mag) - start-up backlash is spool overshoot - and wind backlash, which occurs just before the hump at mid-cast (linear mag brake).

I don’t usually find weight-ins very interesting but this one will be good. Do you think anyone outside of the top 3 could be sandbagging and be in contention?

As you may recall my 1st reply was you were too late hook setting. Catt is trying to help you and getting helpful feedback. Strike detection is an art learned by time on the water and each of us develop our skills by trial and error. Seeing line move is important but doesn’t happen very often so you are missing a lot of strikes when the bass simply engulfs you lure and doesn’t move before rejecting it. My technique is keeping in touch with the lure detecting any change by feeling the with my finger tips. The Palomar knot is ideal for hooks. When tying a Palomar knot aviod twisting the loop when putting the hook through. Tom

But the Pats, Wolverines and Astros were cheating... pro anglers not just fishing legally, their leagues are financially incentivized to encourage greater electronic usage and publicity

Right back atchyou my man, I think being able to have a respectful discussion, and even to disagree respectfully, is a lost art. Usually the culture just devolves a disagreement into some sort of insult fest or virtue signaling party. As for the fish Finders, I feel you on that, but it's the level of engagement that the technology affords that makes the difference. You can cast at an arch that isn't moving until you move over it all day, but when you can basically watch a fish on TV and see what to do or not do - because there's no reason that shouldn't be the next logical step with the tech - just cameras all around the boat underwater with super lenses and heat signature options just showing you absolutely everything.

And I would say those that make that kind of moves full speed aren't very good at what they think they are trying to do or even understand their units. But bet they watched a lot of Utube and still have zero idea.

@Tennessee Boy, if we had to watch them fish the way I do, they would be standing on the rocks below a dam breaking off jigheads and cast nets 😂

And you should have already set hook. Feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on your line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in your line.

Way back when. . . a friend and I were helping a popular local lure maker make his 'jointer swimbait with a plastic tail' make baits because he couldn't keep up with demand. Big swimbaits were the rage to say the least, and there was all kinds of petty drama going on with hordes of anglers descending on Castaic from all over the country (and the world) hoping to catch the fish of a lifetime, and possibly break the world record. People were accusing others of using live trout. Some may have been, but I saw people accused that definitely were not doing so because from a distance, these large swimbaits dangling from a rod may have had the appearance of a live trout. Remember that most anglers had never seen big swimbaits like this (the ones we made were about 11" long). We bought a length of 3-1/2' fence rail and turned it round on a lathe and proceeded to make a 30' version of the popular plug. It actually swam pretty well. We would tie it on to a roller guide tuna rod and stick it into a rod holder on my friend's Skeeter with this monster plug dangling from it while we launched just to watch people point and whisper. Then once we left the launch area, we would put it in the rod locker until it was time to pull the boat out at the end of the day. I made a custom 13" plug for a friend. A week or two later, I came home from work and he was waiting for me on my porch. He was literally shaking. He said a bass ate the 13" plug and swallowed it so deep that he couldn't see it in the big bass' mouth as he got the fish next to his boat, and then it broke his 20 lbs Trilene and took his 13" plug with her. He said he had caught almost 80 lbs of bass that day before losing the plug. Obviously he wanted me to make him a couple more. As for the shaking. . . . well, if you know, you know. So, while a 16" plug seems slightly ridiculous, even to me, I wouldn't bet against it where big bass roam.

I'd upgrade to a SS version of the same prop spec. I'd also see about repairing the Al prop and stowing it as a back up.

I have always wondered why many people recommend using black baits in muddy water because they are more visible, but many people also recommend coloring the line black to make it less visible.

So hands are disqualified because they're considered a "hand operated device that is 'held' underwater" per the Texas law? The sunfish I actually used a net for, though the bass was having none of it. Interesting point though, and good to know in the future! Like Team9nine said, either the puddle was going to dry up or something would come along to pluck it out, and that's just the natural order of things, but it felt wrong to just walk past. I find it difficult to feel indifferent about that kind of thing. We received some rain that very day, but certainly not enough to bring the river to the fish. Threw a picture up if anyone's interested, my favorite thing about fish is the diversity even within just one species as far as coloration and pattern. It's a shame I have a cheap phone with a cheap camera, this guy was incredible!

Not exactly a monkey purchase but I was given a $50 Amazon gift card through my health-care for getting a physical. So I needed some line and saw this on Amazon for $58 for 200 meters. Digitaka sells it for $78. Crazy price for line. I wouldn't pay that much for it but for $8, I think I can swing that. This is supposed to be the best YGK makes. We will see.

I fooled this bass

I think there are some pretty obvious signs of correction with the boating market. Some dealers can't sell inventory nearly as quick as they used to. Just last year a new boat my friend was looking at dropped about $16 grand from March to September simply because they couldn't sell it. There is more of that happening. Mercury laid off a lot of workers. Outboards aren't boats, but they are a big part of them. If Mercury has to reduce costs (like workers), demand has dipped. Take a look around on used boats and you'll see more available at lower costs. Additionally, in order to sell boats, trying to do so at previously inflated costs is not working like it used to. The buyer is gaining some traction again. Just my observations

I took off this week from work and ended up going fishing on Wednesday due to the nice wind forecast for the gorge. Man, what a difference a week and a half makes. Last trip out the bass were chasing bait (smolts) until noon. The bass were schooling and busting bait until at least noon. The river felt alive and thick with life. Gulls and osprey everywhere. This week the river was dead quiet. I guess the smolt have out-migrated and nary a ripple disturbed the surface for most of the day. After an early flurry of topwater action that only resulted in two bass the rest of the day was quite a grind for me. I threw my usual favorite spybait quit a bit but only caught one fish on it all day long. I switched techniques constantly throughout the day and would have a sudden flurry when I changed things up and then things would just go dead again. I only caught 18 bass with the biggest probably going 16" or so (did not bother measuring). I had three times during the day when I caught fish on back-to-back casts and one of those times it ended up being 4 bass in 6 casts. Those three flurries accounted for 8 of the 18 bass I caught on the day. Thus, you can tell that otherwise it was a slow grind of an occasional fish here or there. I think the fish are just set up really differently compared to all my other recent trips. Spots that have been consistently loaded where ghost towns. I would have to say that I never really figured out a solid pattern. Every time I though I had something going for a few minutes the bite would turn off and I would not be able to repeat that short success. Very frustrating on both size and numbers. I finally decided at noon to go back to the ramp to grab my drift sock to try and stop the breeze from pushing me around. That ended up not working out very well since there was not really enough current to counteract the wind. Once I got that drift sock I decided to head East even though the wind was out of the West. That was big mistake. The wind seemed to pick up as I headed East and the conditions were too tough to fish since the fish were not very active. It was really hard to keep touch with my Ned rig and drop show while bouncing around like crazy. That ended up just being a bunch of pedaling exercise. I spent probably an hour and half of pedaling without a single bite. I did talk to one guy how had done better than me on size. He had two 19s and an 18 (which he caught in short order off one spots_ but otherwise he said the bite was really show for him as well. Anyway, I will have to make sure I bring my thinking cap on my next trip I was not ready for that kind of a day and it really through me for a loop. I look forward to figuring them out next time. Here are some pics and my video from the day:

Well at least I’ll have something to check in on during work tommorow. Pretty tight top ten.

It's not really quality (except the yellow labeled bass-x handles thats absolutely real and St Croix will acknowledge it). It's trying to "push the envelope " in places the envelope doesn't need to be pushed. The trigon and physic handles add cost vs traditional handle models. There's not one person that ever said they needed or wanted these sorts of things. St Croix is a hard one to figure out, 100 to 700 dollar rods, some made in US. Nobody on the market is like them. Daiwa/shimano/pure companies offer a wider price range of products so it's not apples to apples. Loomis is 250+ so also not apples to apples. The Arks, Cashions, Megabass, etc don't have nearly the size/place in the overall market to compare. When I think of St Croix and what until recently, it's always been , it's traditional built/look and quality performance (toyota if you will). Kind of like a working man's Loomis. I'd bet many many fishermen feel the same. Now the cheaper components, odd ergonomics and goofy handles... they didn't need to do any of that to keep their place in the market. It's like a hood scoop and huge wing added to a camry... it's like a old dude getting an earing... what's the point? You just sort of feel bad for them. Now add in their profit margin/mark up for customers. The retailer makes less (margin) off them than Shimano, Loomis, Daiwa, Pure, and it's not really close in several price ranges. So why make a product that is a riskier sell at a lower profit for retailers? Puts retailer in a tough spot especially in the economy we have and what the competition offers. I doubt they'll be bought up by PE firms or go out of business but... they need to be what they were.

Yeah, it's all relative with line. When it comes to line, the viewing angle + angle of the sun = visibility. Sometimes light colors are more visible, some times dark colors are more visible, and it's going to change multiple times even within a single cast. Best not to worry about it. I once played around with different colored markers on braid and quickly realized how silly it all was. I agree with @Bazoo that the fish is more likely to be spooked from the vibration and surface disruption than the sight. Sometimes that vibration and surface disruption works for you instead of against you.

Many people who have never used it thinks you simply turn it on and fish start jumping in the boat. I saw part of a video the other day. It was some young guy, and some old guy. (I don't keep up with these people. I'm jealous of all of them. They get to fish, instead of working LOL) The old guy said the young guy should "put on his big boy panties" and learn to fish without FFS. The young guy said the old guy should "put on his big boy panties" and learn to use FFS.

Was the end of your line curled? If it was that's sign your knot slipped. If your line simply broke it would be straight.

Even the Bait Monkey thinks this may be excessive. He is fine with getting 11 $100 baits, but that much in one bait is even beyond that greedy primates limit. I noticed the weight on this swimbait is 22 oz. Now the Monkey is rethinking his opinion. A bait that heavy would need a new rod and reel, so maybe it is a good idea. I reminded him that my wife would not understand spending that much money, and he slinked off to his corner where he belongs. Just out of curiosity, what rod would comfortably cast a 22 oz lure?

Just picked up a Shimano Intenza glass for $112 (100 after using points). 7'2" MH glass, intended as a new chatterbait rod so hopefully it works out. About to head to MidwayUSA and see what else I don't need....

This should never happen!

I'm not quite ready to shell out that much . I havent broken the ten dollar mark yet.

Got home from work, a rough day. Hit the pond real quick for a little bit.

GREAT morning today. A 16", 20.5" and 21 inch bass on a Mike iaconelli Gilly swimbait. analog scale for some reason said every one of them were 1 lb

Thanks, @gimruis. The biggest problem I have with my canoe is the bass pull me into trouble. Last time at my pond, I hooked a big bass at least ten feet from wood and it pulled me into the tree in about three seconds. How can a bass between three and four pounds pull an 85-pound canoe with me in it? No wonder we love them. Whenever I have someone in the bow and they hook a fish, I pick up my paddle and move them to open water. I know tomorrow morning I won't even have a 10' buffer. I'll start in the thicket. Like this: Anyway, I'm hoping for a 50% landing percentage, but I'll more likely achieve 25% and feel lucky to attain that. Overall, I am quite pleased with my weed-fishing. I have come far in three years, landing fish today that would have freed themselves a couple years ago. Plus, I enjoy the challenge. It's like solving a Rubic's Cube at night in the back of a pickup driving flat-out and pell-mell across a just-plowed field.

I use both GPS and buoys. I need all the help I can get. One time I gave directions to a fellow guide on how to find a small creek loaded with salmon in Alaska. I had fished the hard to find place for a few years. The mane river had many side channels and it was difficult to find the correct one that would lead to the tributary with the salmon. There was always a plane parked on a gravel bar, that marked the location of the turn off. I told the guide to take the cut off where the plane was parked. He ran out of gas looking for the plane, and had to float down river until he ran in to another boater who loaned him some gas to get back to the lodge. He never did find the creek. It ended up the owner of the plane actually flew in to town that day. It was the first time in 4 years that I had ever heard of the plane being moved. The guide was not happy and told me I should have given him better directions. I told him the next time to turn at the big cotton wood tree. He said which big cotton wood tree, I said the one next to the plane.

I can drink beer just fine at home. No need to sit on sketchy frozen water and do it. Think I’d rather spend a night in jail than go ice fishing again. And that isn’t an exaggeration either.